


The Drama & Toomfoolery of the William McKinley High School for the Performing Arts

by PrincessPlantasaurus



Category: Glee
Genre: Post-Canon, Post-Finale, other canon characters will be appearing, so they'll be tagged as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28847487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessPlantasaurus/pseuds/PrincessPlantasaurus
Summary: In the finale, we see Principal Schuester leave Sam in charge on New Directions - but when Will also brings back The Troubletones, and creates Duly Noted and the Junior Varsity team, it becomes evident that Sam can't coach four glee clubs alone.Enter newcomers Charlotte Connors, Stevie Tanner, and familiar face; Nick Duval.This is the story of how the latter adjusts from viewing show choir from the lens of a former Dalton performer to a current McKinley director, and the drama and tomfoolery these four show choir directors can't seem to keep out of.
Relationships: Jeff & Nick the Warbler (Glee), Jeff/Nick the Warbler (Glee), Jeff/Original Female Character, Nick Duval/Original Character(s), Nick Duval/Original Female Character(s)





	1. Office Space

Of course, Sam couldn’t coach four glee clubs full time. He technically wasn’t even a teacher, he didn’t have a degree, he only got the job because of his history with Principal Schuester. He was a bit surprised when a former Warbler applied for one of the coaching positions, until he was reminded that half of his current New Directions group were also former Warblers. 

And for that first year, things were kind of a mess. Sam coached the New Directions, Nick coached the Junior Varsity team, and a revolving door of former students or colleagues of Will Schuester’s would come to teach the girls of the Troubletones and the boys of Duly Noted one-off lessons while Sam and Nick were still technically their actual ‘coaches’.

But once the first real year at the new McKinley High School for the Arts started, things took a shift for the pleasant. Knowing that Principal Schuester was planning on hiring proper coaches for all four glee clubs, Nick Duval put in his request to move from the Junior Varsity team to Duly Noted. After all, they were sort of the McKinley adjacent to the Warblers, and that was his wheelhouse. Will, of course, saw no problem with this change and agreed right away.

On that first Monday back to school, the two new faces in the teacher’s lounge were difficult to miss. There had been buzz surrounding who Principal Schue had hired, especially since they weren’t part of Will’s usual bubble of ‘glee club mentors’. Sam had done some of his own digging - Stevie Tanner was from Alaska and was of a fairly medium height and build, skin somewhat more tan than what Sam thought someone from Alaska’s would be, brown hair tied in a low pony, hazel eyes fixated on the plastic spoon in the paper cup she was dumping more and more sugar into...not that Nick was paying attention.

No, Mr. Duval’s attention was taken entirely by Charlotte Connors, who Sam knew had just graduated from University of Central Florida with a degree in musical theatre, but Nick just saw as the pretty redhead scrolling through her phone while taking half interested sips out of her coffee mug, lipstick staining the top of the mug a dark, almost burgundy red. The way her long, shiny, soft looking hair was curled and cascaded to perfectly frame her face made his heart race just a little, her navy blue dress and white blazer was both cute and professional...she was adorable, and he was smitten.

Laying a hand on the chair next to her, Nick didn’t even realize he’d asked “Is this seat taken?” until it was already out of his mouth.

Peering up at him for the first time, Nick wasn’t sure if the faint blush on her cheeks was real, wishful thinking, or makeup he hadn’t noticed before, but nonetheless, she smiled “All yours.” she waited for Nick to actually sit before introducing “Charlotte Connors, I’m the new coach of the Troubletones.”

“Ah, the all girl group! I coach the opposite, Duly Noted, all boys.” he waited, perhaps a beat too long, before extending his hand, “Nick Duval.”

His hand was softer than Charlotte had been anticipating. It was a pleasant and welcome little surprise. “So I’m your distaff counterpart, it seems.”

Nick nodded, pretending, for a few moments, that he was following, before letting the confused expression etch over his face “Huh?”

“It’s a term for a trope in a fictional work. I’m the Minnie Mouse to your Mickey, the My Little Pony to your G.I. Joe. I’m your opposite gender spin-off.” she tried to explain. “Your female equivalent, as it were.”

“Don’t tell me you’re back on that gendered nerd shit.” came a voice Nick didn’t recognize. It was, in fact, Stevie, the other new show choir coach. “She was like this all orientation.”

“No, no, it’s fine, I was the one who ask-”  
  
Nick was cut off by Stevie’s continuing tirade as she slipped into the seat opposite Charlotte’s “The sooner you get the fact that gender isn’t real through that thick ginger skull of yours - the better. All girls and all boy clubs are bullshit, and by offering to coach them you’re continuing this oppressive cis-bigender heternormative worldview!”   
  
“But I’m bi-”   
  
Stevie once again interrupted Nick, this time with cries of “You can’t split glee clubs by gender because you’re splitting it by something that doesn’t exist! And if it did exist, there would be wayyyy more than two genders-”

“Well isn’t that what the New Direction group is for?” Charlotte quirked an eyebrow at the brunette. “Female identifying and female aligned students are more than welcome to audition for the Troubletones should they so choose, but the option of New Directions is there even for cisfemale students who might not love the idea of an all girl club.”

“All groups should be gender neutral.” Stevie argued. “That’s the point. Separating them by something imaginary is completely ridiculous.”

“While I get where you’re coming from, I spent my high school years in an all boys show choir and I wouldn’t be the man I am today without those bonds of brotherhood. We really still are like a family. Plus when it’s a group of cis guys we didn’t have to worry about any pregnancy scares.”

“Don’t look at me,” Sam half joked, sliding into the last remaining chair at the table “That was before I moved here.”

Offering a halfhearted smile, Nick confessed “Kurt really tried to get us all caught up and up to date with the McKinley gossip, but there was always so much going on that it was a bit hard to keep straight.” He paused, turning to the women, but mostly Charlotte if he was being honest with himself, explaining “Sam and I were in competing show choirs back in high school. Kurt mostly competed with McKinley, but he went to my school and competed with us one year.”

“Just until you lost regionals.” Sam reminded him, “then he came crawling back to us for Nationals.”

“And then you stole Blaine from us to win your Nationals the next year.”

“You threw a rock slushie in his eye!”

“That was Sebastian!”

What started as playful bickering but was slowly becoming more heated completely evaporated when Will Schuester’s voice cut through “Oh good, you four were exactly who I wanted to see. Didn’t expect to find you all in one place, but uh, would you mind coming into my office for a second?”

Will Schuester still felt a bit out of place in what he still considered Figgins’ old office. Sure, he was the principal now, and McKinley was a shadow of what it was 10 years ago, and completely unrecognizable to what it was when Will himself was a student in the 90s...but in a lot of ways, he still felt like that high school teacher just a few years in, having convinced Figgins to let him run a club that had brought him so much joy. Sam across the desk from him still felt more like the former student, not a coworker, not the leader of New Directions. And Nick, and the two new directors...was he in over his head?

“As I’m sure the four of you were already discussing, you’re bound to be spending a lot of time together as the directors for each of the show choirs. Obviously, you’ll each be running your own lessons and putting together your own numbers, but you have each other as a network for collaboration and support.” he tried to remain optimistic, but sighed as he had to break some less than ideal news “Now, unfortunately, we weren’t able to remodel any of the building this year. So, on top of having to split the time in the auditorium, you’ll also have to...share offices.”

There was a silence, not that Will was expecting anything different. The first to break it was Charlotte “Will adequate storage space be provided?”

“Yes, of course.” Will was talking out of his ass, but he could always get some more filing cabinets.

“And I guess we can try to work our office hours around when the other teams are in the auditorium…” Sam suggested, putting out a feeler. He was met with mumbling that generally seemed like they agreed.

Will let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even realize he was holding. “I’m glad you’re all so flexible with this. I figured it’d be best to pair Sam & Charlotte, and then Stevie with Nick to offset rehearsal times, if everyone’s okay with that?”  
  
Nick had a small grievance, but he figured that ‘I’d actually rather share an office with Charlotte because I think she’s hot’ wasn’t exactly appropriate, or about to change any minds. Besides, Stevie seemed friendly enough - even if she did really seem keen on destroying the gender binary.

And at first, things were going extremely well! Nick was surprisingly pleased with how well he and Stevie got along. She was really chill, respectful of his student’s office time, and pretty much kept to herself. Sharing a work space with her almost reminded him of staying up with Jeff or Trent or any of the other Warblers studying for a test the next day. And maybe it was that similar vibe that caused him to start singing under his breath. 

Nothing wild or loud, of course. Just vocalizing some acapella back up beats, like the good old days. Technically he was still working. He was working out the arrangement for what could be a great sectionals selection. And maybe he started tapping his foot. And drumming his pencil on the edge of his desk. 

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing it, probably at least 3 minutes, before Stevie’s head shot up from her desk “Oh my god can you not?!?”

Cheeks reddening from embarrassment, he muttered out a quick “s-sorry”

“Jesus fuck, I can’t hear myself think.”

Maybe he was a little stirred up about her reaction. Maybe he just felt like stirring the pot, but regardless, Nick found himself stirring up a fight. “Maybe watch the language? What if one of your students heard you talking like that?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing they haven’t heard before.” she shrugged.

It was a good point, but he was still in a fighty mood “But that doesn’t mean that we, as teachers, an-and role models, should encourage it!”

“God, didn’t take you for such a fucking prude, Duval.” Stevie rolled her eyes, moving to put her black converse-clad feet up on her desk. “Did they really coddle you that hard at Daddy’s little prep school?”

He might’ve just been in a fighty mood before, but that would’ve made him angry even in the happiest of moods. Grabbing his notebooks in a huff, he stormed out the door.

Little did he know that similar tensions were rising down the hallway. Charlotte and Sam weren’t yelling at each other, per se, but it was obvious that they were in an argument. Up until this point, Nick had only heard Charlotte’s voice as sweet and kind, so her tirade of “...Schuester put you in charge of his most precious glee club expecting you to take Nationals and you can’t do that if you…” had him a little thrown.

“Hey!” Sam countered “I was a part of that glee club back when it was still his! I think I know what he expects of me a little better than…” a pause, and then a friendly smile, as if the anger he was spewing at the redhead moments ago simply didn’t exist “...oh hey Nick, what’s up?”

“I, uh, was wondering if you guys wanted to talk about lesson plans.” He was still a little uncomfortable given the quarrel he’d walked in on, so his voice, normally much louder and assured, seemed almost groggy. “Maybe brainstorm some themes…?”

“THANK YOU!” Charlotte’s voice, it seemed, picked up the clear assuredness Nick’s usually had but currently lacked. She wrapped her arm around Nick’s waist, causing an eruption of butterflies in his stomach that he prayed his facial features didn’t let on. “ _Someone_ agrees that preparing the weekly assignments in advance is a good thing.”

“You don’t know these kids the way I do!” Sam tried to argue. “Sometimes what you’ve prepared just won’t match up with what’s going on in their lives-”

“Planning nothing is not better!” Charlotte countered immediately. 

Nick might’ve tried to mediate if he didn’t like getting held by Charlotte so much. It was also in this moment he realized just how touch starved and/or horny he was, getting all flustered from what was really nothing more than an elongated awkward Christian side hug.   
  
“Forget this, I don’t have to deal with this!” Sam cried, it now being his turn to storm out angrily.

Quietly, Nick finally did offer a small “Probably best to let him cool down.”

Charlotte sighed, dropping her arm around Nick in order to rub her temples in frustration. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” he rushed to assure her, but in a cool chill, nonchalant way….he hoped. “I think it’s officemate growing pains...I had a bit of a spat with Stevie today.”

“Sorry to hear that.” she mumbled, before clearing her throat and offering “Well, if you still wanted to go over lesson plans and do a small brain storming session…”

“Oh yeah, of course!” He nodded eagerly. “Did you want to maybe...grab a coffee? Before we get started?”  
  
With a dejected sigh, Charlotte informed him “They’re out in the teacher’s lounge. I just checked about 20 minutes ago.”

A mischievous twinkle in his eye, half smirking, he questioned “You ever been to the Lima Bean?”

Sipping on his own vanilla ice coffee, he waited with Charlotte as the barista prepared her peppermint mocha. “Sorry that this is probably going to be a little while, I always order froufrou drinks that take a hot minute.”  
  
Lightly nudging her elbow with his own, he smiled “Don’t worry, I’m not in the business of drink shaming.”

As the barista passed Charlotte her beverage, the two made their way to a side table. “Here’s a potentially weird question for you,” Charlotte posed “Is it awkward running ideas against Stevie since her kids aren’t actually competing?”  
  
“No, she’s actually been pretty receptive.” Nick admitted with a happy nod. “We don’t exactly agree on a lot of our ideas, she wants to do a whole Papa Roach week-”

“Are you not a Papa Roach fan?” Charlotte teased, a giggle bubbling up behind a smirk as she moved to take a sip of her coffee.

A chuckle of his own escaping, Nick confessed “I’m less of Papa Roach and more of a…” he paused, searching for the right comparison “...Mamma Mia.”

“Here you go again?” Charlotte playfully chided.

“My, my.” he shook his head a little, laughing. “But to answer your original question, she takes her lesson planning and themes very seriously. Maybe tensions will rise when my guys get closer to Sectionals, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Charlotte nodded, digesting both his words and her coffee. Pulling her thoughts together, she decided to ask “So earlier when Sam and I were having our little...disagreement...you mentioned a spat with Stevie. If it wasn’t about lesson planning, what was it about? If you don’t mind my prying.”

“No, no, not at all.” He assured her. And then he paused, momentarily, scratching the back of his head as he sheepishly admitted “I, uh, thought I was just kinda singing under my breath, but according to Stevie it was a lot louder...and a lot more distracting.”

Charlotte was doing her best to not laugh as prodded “That’s all? Was it the singing she didn’t like, or just the song selection?”

“Likely both, if we’re being honest.” he chuckled. “I kinda feel bad about snapping at her, though. It felt frustrating at the time, but it’s honestly such a small thing compared to what I walked in on you and Sam going on about-”

“Oh, ew” she scrunched her nose up in disgust. “Don’t say you ‘walked in on me and Sam’, that makes it sound like we’re.... _involved_.”

Well. If _this_ swing in the conversation didn’t perk his ears up. Trying (and likely miserably failing) not to seem _too_ interested, he tried to seem nonchalant as he asked “Oh, not interested in Sam, hmm? Are you in a committed relationship, then? Or is he just not your type?”

“Not my type.” she responded almost instantly, though not in a fun, excited, eager way. No, her tone was bored and flat. “Don’t get me wrong, moving from the sunshine state to the climate of Ohio where I know no one does have me a little lonely, but Sam’s not exactly the type of guy I’d go seeking that sort of comfort with.”

“Type of _guy_ , huh?” he quirked an eyebrow up.

“Uh, yeah?”

“So it’s not because you’re exclusively attracted to women, then. It’s just Sam not doing it for you.” he mused out loud.

One side of her mouth twitching upwards into a half smirk, her face etched with skepticism, Charlotte pondered “What exactly is your angle here, Mr. Duval?”

“I’m just trying to learn more about my lovely new coworker, that’s all.” he shrugged, grinning. “And please, call me Nick.”

Not entirely sure she was buying it, Charlotte posed “So, _Nick_ , did you invite me out for coffee to try and dissect my life, or did you actually want to try to brainstorm some themes for our glee clubs?”

“I promise it was about the glee clubs.” he admitted earnestly. “I’m sorry, I got distracted. But if we can circle back to Mamma Mia for a moment-”

Nick knew it wasn’t a date. It was work related. Nothing explicitly romantic transpired, and the closest things got to getting physical was when Charlotte moved to cross her legs under the table and Nick foolishly thought that it might had been an attempt at playing footsie. It wasn’t. She was just crossing her legs under the table. 

But that didn’t stop him from feeling absolutely elated the next day. He _felt_ like he’d been on a first date that went well. It wasn’t unlike Nick to see an attractive person and immediately fall hard and fast for them, but he couldn’t help himself from feeling so damn giddy. He felt like nothing could stop this feeling of elation - until he walked into his office, looking trashed. “What the hell happened in here?”

He saw the blue flannel on Stevie’s back before he saw the woman herself. She was bent over, lifting a box up off the floor and onto her desk. “How do you mean?”

“Your stuff is...everywhere?!?”

“Well yeah, I haven’t quite had time to unpack everything from my old classroom in Alaska,” she shrugged “and I needed something out of this specific box.”

Eyes squinting as he pinched the bridge of his nose, he sighed “Yeah, okay, so what’s with all the dirty paper cups?”

“I needed the coffee!” she cried, crossing her arms before adding “Not all of us can just fuck off with Charlotte for a quickie, some of us have _work_ to do.”

“First of all, language,” he chastised “second of all, we went to get coffee and talk about potential assignments for our glee clubs. Nothing even remotely in the realm of ‘a quickie’”.

With a roll of her eyes, Stevie countered “Look, deny it all you want, but I’m just saying it’d be a lot easier for you to bump uglies with her if you...I don’t know...maybe shared an office.”

“Charlotte and I are not…” his over dramatic frustrated groan ended immediately, as he was suddenly filled with nothing but the purest confusion “...wait what?”

“I’m just saying,” Stevie shrugged nonchalantly “You and I clearly have different work styles, and if you were to share an office with Charlotte instead, you’d have a lot more opportunities to….” she paused, before smiling knowingly “...sneak off on work-related coffee ventures.”

As much as he loved that idea… “...why do you want me to switch offices so bad?”

“No offense, but we don’t exactly vibe.” Stevie started, but then immediately course corrected “as office roommates, I mean. We’re already getting annoyed at small habits, like you and your singing and me and my sailor mouth.”

“I guess you have a point.” he conceded.

“I usually do.” she smirked. 

“So why me and Charlotte?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Why not you and Charlotte and me and Sam?”

“Because I’ve seen the way you behave around her. Undressing her with your eyes when she’s not looking, and following her around like a lost puppy when she is.” Stevie answered simply. “So the potential of being in such close proximity to her everyday was going to be the easier sell.”

Nick nodded, following Stevie’s logic, even if he was a little upset with how easy of a read he was. "So other than the hope that Sam doesn’t sing under his breath, what’s in it for you?”

Stevie stared at him like he’d grown a new head “Have you seen that man’s abs?!? You’re not the only one hoping for a little office boinking.”

“So why didn’t you already tell Principal Schuester that you want to change office partners?”

“Oh no,” Stevie shook her head “No no, you’re gonna tell him.”

“What?!?” Nick gasped “Why me? It was _your_ idea!” 

“Exactly why I couldn’t ask!” Stevie argued. “If I, a loose cannon cop who doesn’t play by the rules, marched down there and demanded to switch he’d think I was crazy and probably have me fired. But if _you_ go down there and explain we _both_ think it’s best if we swapped office buddies…”

With a dejected sigh, he surrendered “Alright, alright, I’ll go talk to Schuester.”

As he made his way to Schuester’s office, he tried to conjure up his old acting skills from back when being in the Warblers made him think he had a shot at Broadway. The more genuinely hurt, upset, devastated he seemed, the more likely Mr. Schue buying his story was. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t notice right away, so in his own head, when he stormed into the office and declared “We need to swap these office sharing assignments. Stevie and I are simply too different in our work styles for either of us to feel productive. In order for us to both do our best to give these kids the best we can offer, I think we have no choice but to change who shares offices. And Stevie agrees.”

At first, Mr. Schue looked confused, and then his face muscles relaxed, letting out a soft chuckle, as he informed Nick “That’s, uh, exactly what Charlotte is here about.”

Nick’s eyes widened at the sudden realization that Charlotte had been seated in front of Will the whole time. He’d been so into his acting gig that he hadn’t even noticed her luscious long ponytail peering over the back of the chair. And then he realized he’d never seen her with her hair pulled up. It was cute.

But enough hormonal distractions! Why was Charlotte here? “It is?”

“And if what both of you are saying is true, I really don’t mind two of you swapping offices.” Will explained with a genuine smile. “Whatever helps foster a healthier environment.” Looking to Nick, he added “Now, Charlotte had specifically requested that she and Stevie be the ones to switch, if that’s alright with you, Nick?”

Well. To say this was easier than he thought it would be would be a massive understatement. “Absolutely. From the little brainstorming sessions we’ve had, Charlotte and I do work well together.”

Will smiled “Well then, if Charlotte and Stevie don’t mind starting the process, I’ll get to work on updating our directory.” 

It didn’t take long to get most of Stevie’s things out of the office they used to share and into her new one with Sam. And of course, shortly thereafter, all of Charlotte’s items, boxed and sorted in a system that she swore was simple but made no sense to him, were tucked away in what was now _their_ office.

After helping her place a particularly heavy box, he questioned “Can I ask you something?”

“Go on.” she replied, only half paying attention, busy ensuring all of her files were correctly transplanted into the new filing cabinet. 

“This is more a personal curiosity than anything, so feel free to not answer if you don’t want to,” he prefaced, before adding “you got to hear my big speech to Principal Schuester, but what exactly was your reason for requesting this switch?”

“You already know.” she shrugged. “Sam and I have very different planning styles, and it was causing too much tension.”  
  
Nick thought about how there was definitely another, different type of tension between the two of them, but realizing it may have been one-sided, he decided it best to keep his mouth shut about it. For now. But it didn’t stop him from pressing “If I recall correctly, Principal Schuester said you specifically requested me as your officemate…”

Turning from the filing cabinet, she nodded, affirming “Stevie has a lot of opinions on a lot of things that she’s not afraid of sharing. I learned that during our orientation. And if the worst I’m going to get with you is the occasional singing under your breath, it seemed like the safest option.”

“I suppose that checks out.” He smiled, before adding “it still gave my ego a boost, so thank you for that.”

“I’m sure your ego is nothing compared to mine on a bad day.” she half-joked. 

“Well then,” he smirked, reaching out his hand for her to shake in a jokingly competitive move “I look forward to the day we find out.”  
  
His hand was as soft as Charlotte remembered it being.


	2. Warblers to Men

A few weeks into the new office sharing assignments and things were going surprisingly well. Nick was in the auditorium, wrapping up a runthrough of an acapella arrangement of Walk the Moon’s ‘Shut Up and Dance’. The boys were really shaping up well, and Nick had a good feeling that this number might snatch them Sectionals. Probably so hyped up on the feeling of how proud he was of his kids, he really didn’t realize he’d run over time. At least, that was, until he felt Sam’s hand on his shoulder. “Cool number, bro.”

Nick jumped a little, and then tried to play it off like he hadn’t. “Uh, thanks man. Sorry for running over, the boys are packing up right now.”

As the members of New Directions began sitting in the front few rows of the auditorium, Sam waved a hand dismissively “Don’t sweat it. Your kids are gonna need all the practice they can get if we end up facing off at Regionals or Nationals this year.” he taunted, the friendly smacktalk something the two men participated in fairly frequently. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Nick smirked playfully, gathering up his things to head out and let Sam run his rehearsal. “Did you see that number? We’re well on our way to taking Nationals.”

“I did see the number.” Sam raised his eyebrows, before supplying “It was...cool. Kinda...Warbler-y.”

“I don’t know how to break this to you, Sam, but I  _ was _ a Warbler.”

“I’m just saying…” the blonde shrugged nonchalantly “...New Directions took the Warblers spot at Nationals several years running. Maybe you should make your numbers a little less Warbler-y and a little more New Direction-y.”

That didn’t quite sit well with Nick. In fact, he told Jeff as much over the phone just a half hour later. “I mean, Principal Schuester wouldn’t have hired me if he didn’t want Warblers flavor, right?”

“I dunno, he might have a point.” Jeff replied from the other end of the line. “They did beat us every year.”

“I guess,” Nick sighed “but I don’t even know the first thing about arranging with a band. Acapella is classic.”

“You could always ask Sam for help. He always seemed really chill. And aren’t there other show choir directors there?”

There were, of course, two other show choir directors, Stevie and Charlotte, who were both  _ also  _ arranging both vocals and instrumentation for all their numbers. In fact, as he rounded the corner into their shared office, Charlotte was sitting there, typing away at a laptop, occasionally pausing to write something in a spiral notebook. The help he needed was there. But Nick wasn’t about to ask.

Meanwhile, Jeff was still talking. “It’s so funny to think about how McKinley has four directors and we didn’t even have one…”

“You got me there.” Nick only half heartedly laughed. “Hey, are you still coming up this weekend?”   


“Hell yeah broski!” Nick could hear the relaxed smile on his friend’s face. God, he missed seeing it in person. “Got a hotel booked for four nights and everything! I’ve been missing the Lima Bean and BreadStiX something fierce so we’ll have to hit both of them up.”

Chuckling more whole heartedly now, Nick repeated back “Lima Bean and BreadStiX, got it. I gotta let you go now, but we’ll talk more before you come down.”

Charlotte waited the appropriate amount of time for Jeff to say his goodbye on the other end before peering up from her work “Ooooh, who was that?”

A little confused by Charlotte’s ooh-ing, he replied “Uh, just my buddy Jeff.” still sounding more than a little confused.

“Just buddies, huh?” she raised an eyebrow knowingly. “Seemed awful friendly for ‘just buddies’.” She put airquotes around the words, for emphasis. 

“I mean, he is my best friend, from back at Dalton-”

“We love a good friends to lovers moment.” she smirked down at her notes. 

“I’m sorry,” Nick was entirely baffled at this point. “Lovers?”

Eyes flickering back up to her coworker, Charlotte’s voice was warm as she assured him “You don’t have to be coy about it, Nick. Coming up to see you? Coffee and then dinner? It’s cute. It’s, dare I say,  _ romantic _ .”

“No, no, Jeff and I are just friends, Charlotte!” Nick cried, perhaps a bit too quickly. “Always have been, always will be. We were both out as bisexual back in high school - if something was ever going to happen between us, it would’ve by now.”

“Alright, maybe I’m wrong.” she conceded. “But if I’m right I want choice seating at the wedding reception.”

Nick really didn’t understand why Charlotte was so set on believing there was something more going on with him and Jeff. She heard a small portion of their phone conversation and assumed they were soulmates. He thought that maybe the fact that it was Charlotte was what was upsetting him. After all, there’s nothing worse than the person you’re trying to romantically pursue effectively trying to wingman you. Kinda kills the romantic vibe.

But then, that wouldn’t explain why he was also so immediately defensive the next day when Sam bombarded him in the teacher’s lounge. “What the hell, dude?!? Charlotte just told me you’re not dating Jeff? Did you two break up? How long ago was this? Is it recent? Do you need some male bonding time? Cause we can go box or something to let off steam-”

“Jeff and I were  _ never _ dating!” Nick cried. 

Sam scrunched up his nose. “That doesn’t seem right.”

“Then it must be left!” Stevie chimed in, before adding “Sorry I have no idea what we’re talking about, what’s going on?”

“Nick’s trying to tell me that he and his high school sweetheart never dated!” Sam gestured towards the shorter man. 

Smirking a bit as she lifted her coffee mug to her lips, Stevie chuckled “Uh, no offense, Sam, but I feel like Nick would know more about that than you would.”

“High school sweetheart,” Nick scoffed. “He was my best friend. Still is! We had a special connection, sure. An unbreakable bond. And sure, he’s not bad looking…”

“Sounds pretty gay, dude.” Stevie interrupted, before gasping “Wait, was it like, unrequited?!? Like you had a crush on him and he didn’t like you back?!?”

“I didn’t have a crush on him.” Nick stated, pouring his own coffee. “Still don’t! Why can’t two men loving men just have a strong platonic bond?”

Smirking, Sam poked “Wasn’t that sort of Kurt and Blaine’s whole thing at the start?”

“That was different.” Nick rolled his eyes. But then...how  _ was  _ it different? Apparently everyone but Blaine saw Kurt’s obvious crush on him...well, everyone but Blaine and Nick. When they got together, when the other Warblers talked about how it was ‘about time’ and how they’d been trying to push them together, Nick had been the only one totally in the dark. Even Jeff knew. Of course...he and Jeff were different. Sure, they’d spend hours staying up talking, and everyone once in a while he’d push that cute chunk of blonde bangs on his friend’s eyes in a slightly tender fashion…

Oh no.

Oh no.

_ Did  _ he have a crush on Jeff?

And if he did...was he over it?

No. No. Of course he didn’t have a crush on Jeff. He would’ve known. Like with Charlotte, it was instantaneous. Instant attraction, instant butterflies. Just like every other crush he had...on a girl.

Not quite like his boy crushes, though.

Well, any lingering potential-feelings for Jeff must’ve subsided, he decided, or Charlotte wouldn’t be running through his mind all the time. Maybe he did have a crush on Jeff back then. So what? Jeff was living in LA now, and Nick was happy in Ohio. Their lives would’ve severed anyhow. 

So why was the thought still rattling around in his brain, even when he went to pick Jeff up from the airport? 

Of course, when the blonde first jumped in, Nick was a little flustered, but it immediately dissipated as Jeff opened his mouth and started rambling about the weird guy he set next to on the plane, not once even greeting his friend. The vibe was normal. It was like they hadn’t spent months apart. 

He dropped Jeff off at the hotel he was staying at since his parents had left Ohio shortly after he’d moved to California. Normally, he would’ve thought it best to offer to just let him stay with him, but given the rumors Charlotte and Sam were already spreading...well...he didn’t want to push it. But he did still pick him up the next afternoon, giving him the tour of the school that he’d promised.

“So this is the office I share with Charlotte.” Nick gestured to the room while taking Jeff around McKinley as a tour guide. 

“Charlotte.” Jeff repeated, before his eyes widened and he questioned “Oh, she’s the one you have a crush on, right?”

“Shhh!” Nick hushed. “Dude, that’s our office! She could be in there! She could’ve heard you!”

“Don’t think so.” Jeff shrugged. “The lights are off.”

Taking him down the hall, he explained “This is Sam and Stevie’s office. I know you know Sam, but…” he trailed off, a little confused, but then, he shouldn’t have been, since the lights were off in their office “...Charlotte’s here, too? Uh, Charlotte, Stevie, meet Jeff…”

Bringing her hand out to shake his, Charlotte introduced herself. “Charlotte Connors. It’s nice to meet you, Jeff. Nick has told me  _ a lot  _ about you.” she smiled knowingly, earning her a pointed look from Nick. Eying the brunette while still shaking the blonde’s hand, she mouthed a soft ‘what?’

Jeff, totally oblivious, shook her hand and smiled brightly “It’s nice to meet you!”

“Sup,” Stevie nodded, also shaking the blonde’s hand “I’m Stevie. Nice to uh... _ meet  _ you.”

In almost the exact same pitch and tone he used while greeting Charlotte, he repeated verbatim “It’s nice to meet you!”

“And of course, you know Sam.” Nick continued.

“I don’t know what I know anymore.” Sam muttered, before tacking on “in regards to you and Jeff.”

Nick shot him a look, similar to the one he’d shot Charlotte just mere moments ago.

And speaking of Charlotte. “Sooo…” she twirled a strand of hair around her finger, trying to play it coy. “Nick tells me you two have a big date at BreadStix.”

“Yeah!” Jeff nodded eagerly. “Tonight at 7:30! You guys should come!”

“We...should?” Sam was confused.

“Yeah, it’s BreadStix!” Jeff attempted to persuade, just as chipper as his initial invitation was. “Everyone loves BreadStix!”

Charlotte turned to Stevie to mutter “Isn’t it just...off brand Olive Garden?”

“I wouldn’t know.” the brunette shrugged “I’ve never been.”

“Wait wait wait,” Sam interrupted “You’ve never been to BreadStiX?”

Stevie shook her head, as Charlotte let out a small “Neither have I.”

Jeff’s eyes widened as he practically pleaded “Well now you both  _ have  _ to come!”

“Is it even any good?” Stevie questioned.

“Oh yeah,” Sam answered, “They literally _ have  _ to keep bringing you free breadsticks.”

“Like Olive Garden?” Charlotte raised an eyebrow as she folded her arms across her chest.

“It’s better than Olive Garden.” Nick scoffed.

“So you’ll come?” Jeff looked like a little lost puppy, eyes big and pleading.

Casting a glance at Nick, Charlotte carefully stated “Well, we wouldn’t want to intrude on anything…”

“You wouldn’t be.” Nick stated, perhaps a bit too harshly.

“I’m always down for unlimited carbs.” Stevie shrugged.

“Ah, this will be so fun!” Jeff all but squealed. “It’ll be like a cute little double date.”

At this proclamation, Nick and Charlotte automatically snapped their attention back to each other - Charlotte sporting a knowing smirk and Nick’s face showing nothing but confusion.

And he was still confused, hours later, at BreadStiX. The four of them in a booth, he sat diagonal from Jeff, which just felt...off. Jeff sat in the far corner, arm wrapped lazily around Stevie’s shoulder as he was on minute 3 of answering what should’ve been an incredibly simple question. Across from Jeff and next to Nick sat Charlotte, quietly picking away at her pasta. She’d been pretty quiet this whole time, actually. Nick had attempted to throw her into Jeff and Stevie’s conversation a few times - anything to get them to realize there were two other people at the table - but Charlotte’s responses were short and simple and usually closed-ended. Maybe she genuinely felt as awkward as he did. Maybe she was just really into her pasta. 

Either way, Nick’s attention wasn’t really on Charlotte. It was on Jeff, and how Jeff wasn’t giving Nick any of  _ his  _ attention in return. Wasn’t Jeff here to see him? And like, he got it. Stevie was cool and interesting. But it’d been 35 minutes and Jeff had barely said boo to him. So intently focused on whatever Stevie was saying, or saying something to Stevie. 

“...right, Nick?”

He was snapped out of his internal steaming for a quick second. “Huh?”

“Told ya he wasn’t paying attention!” Jeff chuckled.

Stevie rolled her eyes “Jeff said you guys did a Hey Monday number at Regionals, and I said that I suggested a pop punk lesson, but  _ someone  _ thought it was ‘a bit much’.”

Oh yeah. Candles. The time Kurt got a Regionals performance without auditioning for it just because Blaine was horny. And apparently everyone but Nick not only knew but were actively trying to get them together. It wasn’t like they withheld the information from Nick, but that the rest of the Warblers all thought it was obvious and that Nick had also picked up on it. Nick, of course, had not.

He was starting to wonder if it wasn’t just Kurt and Blaine’s obvious feelings he missed. Because watching Jeff all up close and cuddly with Stevie - who he’d known for half a day - well, the feeling felt awfully similar to jealousy.

“While I’m sure a lot of pop punk acts have age appropriate songs, I don’t think we should send teenagers wading through their backlogs of sex and drugs to find them.” Nick spoke, masking his racing thoughts and potential feelings for his high school best friend.

“A lot of them are listening to it anyway!” Stevie cried.

Charlotte spoke, for the first time in what had to be close to ten minutes, to add “And I feel like a lot of the students who don’t listen to full pop punk albums would just choose the content appropriate songs that are already on the radio. Panic at the Disco and Fall Out Boy have had quite a few hits.”

Raising an eyebrow curiously, Nick’s voice lowered just slightly as he asked “Wait, are you...actually siding with Stevie?”

“I’m just saying she has a point.” Charlotte shrugged. 

“But you’ve always taken my side…”

“Because I’ve always agreed with you.” Charlotte’s eyes were focused entirely on the dish in front of her, where she was pushing gnocchi around with her fork. More than the not taking his side thing, the refusal to even look at him was throwing him off. Normally Charlotte made very intense eye contact with him while talking about show choir. This was...off brand. “But I disagree with you on this particular subject.”

“Awww,” Stevie cooed across the tables “Babies’ first fight!”

“Be careful,” Charlotte looked up and across at Stevie. Huh. “People might assume we’re-”

She was cut off by the waitress coming back over, asking “How’s everyone doing?”, and then, after being met by a chorus of good and greats and lovelys, asking “Can I get you a dessert menu?”

“Oooh!” Jeff’s eyes went wide, immediately turning to Stevie “We should totally do that cutesy gross sharing a dessert thing!”

“Oh like eating off each other’s forks even though we’re sharing it sort of bullshit?!?” Stevie questioned, clearly just as hyped. “Absolutely! Yeah, we’ll take a dessert menu, thanks!”

“And for you two?” the waitress turned back towards Nick and Charlotte.

Before Nick even had a chance to register anything, Charlotte was saying “Just the bill, please, and a box for the rest of this if I could?”

“Sure thing, sweetheart.” the waitress smiled, her eyes flickering between Charlotte and Nick as she questioned “And that bill is…?”

Again, before Nick even had time to register the question, Charlotte answered. “Separate.”

The waitress offered a small smile and the promise that she’d “be right back with that.”

“So what are we feeling for dessert?” Jeff’s question was, once again, aimed entirely at Stevie. 

Her reply of “Anything with caramel. I’d fuck up some caramel.” mostly faded into fuzzy background noise in Nick’s mind. So not only was he only now, several years too late, realizing he’d had feelings for this best friend back in high school, but this whole time he was supposed to have been on a date with the one person he recently  _ knew  _ he had feelings for, and he’d barely paid her any mind the whole time. He’d done to this night what Stevie was about to do to that caramel: fuck it up. 

As Stevie and Jeff rattled on about dessert options, Nick tried to search for something, for anything to save what he’d just put Charlotte through...and any chances for a different, better first date in the future. Of course, it was hard to focus with Jeff being all lovey dovey and touchy feely with someone he barely knew right in front of him, given that he was still coming to terms with those old feelings.

Soon, their waitress reappeared, box for Charlotte’s gnocchi in one hand and a dessert menu in the other. Charlotte paid for her pasta as Nick continued to sit in a stunned silence. As soon as the waitress stepped away, the redhead sighed “Well, I’m going to head home. Enjoy the rest of your night, and your dessert, and enjoy the rest of your stay, Jeff.”

“Thanks so much for coming out!” Jeff beamed. “Better than Olive Garden, right?”

“They’re definitely...comparable.” Charlotte smiled, before lightly tapping Nick’s shoulder, with a quick ask of “mind if I scoot?”

Nick, of course, stood up to let her out, even if he was still drowning in a million thoughts.

“Wait a second,” Stevie muttered, before crying out in confusion “Charlotte, I drove you here!?!”

“I’ll get an Uber. It’s fine.” she called over her shoulder “Enjoy your night. Make good choices, be safe…”

“Wait, how does she know that we’re gonna…?” Jeff mumbled, before Stevie sharply elbowed him in the rib cage.

Rubbing his ribcage where he’d been elbowed, Jeff waited for Charlotte to be out of ear shot before focusing on Nick for the first time that night. “Bro, what are you doing?!?”

“Huh?”

“You told me you had a crush on her so I set up this cute little date and you’re not even going to offer to drive her home?”

“We really set you up to hit it out of the park.” Stevie lamented. “Dropping hints about splitting a dessert, blocking you out of our conversations so you could chat her up some more, and you missed every single opportunity.”

“You know, I’m glad you didn’t like me back in high school,” Jeff folded his arms over his chest “You’re a lousy date.”

“You liked me in high school?!?”

“Well, yeah.” Jeff shrugged. “I was really obvious about it. Everybody knew. But even though you obviously didn’t like me back you were still always a super good friend to me which is why we’re still best friends now.”

“You really ought to get the word ‘oblivious’ tattooed on your forehead.” Stevie chuckled. 

Nick just kinda stared at Jeff, for a second, dumbfounded, before blinking and mumbling “I guess I miss a lot of obvious things.” he paused only for a second, to clear his throat, before asking “I should like...go after her, right?”

“You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.” Stevie shrugged. “Without Charlotte you’re a third wheel and it’s killing my vibes.”

“Wait,” Nick scrunched his nose in confusion “So are you two actually dating or was it just to try and push me and Charlotte together? I’m confused.”

“Both!” Jeff grinned happily.

“We’re not ‘dating’.” Stevie rolled her eyes. “We’re only technically on a date because I wanted free food before, we, you know…”

“Wait,” Nick continued to try to piece together “When did you two even have time to-?”

“Oh, I actually met Stevie last night after you dropped me off.” Jeff nodded.

“Tinder.” The brunette gave as means of explanation.

Well. He supposed that checked out. “Oh.”

“So are you just gonna sit here and third wheel?” Stevie raised an eyebrow mischievously “Or are you going to go out there and hopefully be the second Warbler to get some tonight?”

Eyes widening, Nick gasped “Oh, right!” before bolting out the BreadStiX booth.

As he ran out, Stevie turned to Jeff to comment “He didn’t pay for his food.”

That was the last thing on Nick’s mind as he ran outside. The first thing being that he’d waited too long and Charlotte was probably in an uber halfway back to her apartment by now. Should he call her? But if she was in an uber he didn’t want to distract her during the ride to make sure she got home safely. Should he wait to call? Would it be too late? Should he text? Would that seem impersonal?

“Nick?” 

Turning around seeing Charlotte almost gave him a heart attack. But in the best kind of way. He wasn’t too late. He hadn’t entirely fucked everything up yet. “Hey!” he was probably too loud with the greeting. He didn’t care. “I thought you would’ve been in your uber by now.”

“Was just about to order it.” she answered, waving her phone as if for demonstration. “Had to take a quick visit to the ladies’ room first.”

With a soft nod, he offered “Well, hey, I could drive you if you wanted? Save you from spending money on an uber.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the least I could do.” Both his tone and smile were genuine, though he hadn’t realized he placed a hand on her shoulder until he watched her eyes flicker over to it. He awkwardly faked a cough, using it as an excuse to bring the hand off her shoulder to cover his mouth. 

He walked her to his car, opening the passenger side door for her, hoping these small last ditch romantic gestures would be enough for her to forgive him for how awful he’d been all night. They buckled in, she gave him her address, and for a short while, they didn’t speak, classic rock softly wafting from the car radio. It wasn’t until they hit a red light at a fourway stop Nick finally decided to break the silence. “Hey, so, uh, you know...I didn’t think that was supposed to be a date.”

“I know.” she spoke quietly, so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. “I think we were both a little thrown.”

Eyes on the road, hands subconsciously gripping the steering wheel tighter, he added “If it were a date, I would’ve-”

“Nick,” she sighed. “It’s fine. You wanted to be there on a date with Jeff. I kinda thought that’s what Jeff had been implying earlier. It must’ve been hard for you to get there and realize he’s interested in someone else.”

“Y-yeah, I guess.” He wasn’t entirely sure he knew where this was going, but he kept talking anyway. “It’s just kinda weird because I  _ had  _ feelings for him, you know, past tense, that I didn’t even realize I had until you and Sam kept teasing me about it. And trying to come to terms with that...and then him telling me he had feelings back then, too…”

“When did he say that?”

“After you’d left. Not long after I sort of chased after you.”

“Don’t say that.” she rolled her eyes playfully. “That makes it sound like you ran into an airport to stop me from getting on a plane so you could confess your undying love.”

“Would that be a bad thing?” he half joked, eyes flickering away from the road for half a second to smile coyly at her, but back on the road as he mused “I thought you liked romance.”

“Not a bad thing,” she smiled as she corrected him “just not what this was at all.” 

“Right.” he nodded. He noticed his grip tightening on the steering wheel this time, but only because he could feel his jaw getting tighter. He didn’t totally love this feeling.

“But back to Jeff,” Charlotte redirected. “That’s an awful lot for you to try to digest in one night. Are you okay?”

“I’m not gonna lie, it hasn’t been the best night of my life.” he chuckled halfheartedly, before letting out a sigh, and adding, his voice softer, more genuine, “But I’ll  _ be  _ okay. It’s just gonna...take some time to digest all the feelings first.”

“That’s fair.” Charlotte waited a few moments, the chorus of Bruce Springsteen’s Two Hearts filling the air despite the low radio volume, before asking, her voice barely above a whisper “Do you still have feelings for him?”

“No.” Nick replied automatically. And then, actually thinking about it, he explained. “I mean, I don’t think I do? Not...not like I did before. Like, you know when you run into an old crush and something’s still there, but it’s not the strength it was? Not the strength you’ve had more recently for someone new? I’m sure that bit of a spark is always going to be there, it’s just...not as bright anymore, I guess.”

“That makes sense,” Charlotte nodded, studying his face for a bit before adding “especially if, like you said, there is someone else.”

A part of him really wanted to flicker his eyes over to her for just a second. Try to get a read on her face. Try to figure out her angle. Figure out if this was the right time to confess to this attraction. But he didn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t get the information he wanted in a second’s glance, so he kept his eyes on the road. “Yeah.”

“So…” she was fidgeting her hands, thumb desperately scratching at hangnails that weren’t there. “...you do have feelings for someone? Someone who’s not Jeff?”

“Yeah.” he responded, almost sadly. “Someone other than Jeff. Newer feelings. More obvious, too.”

“More obvious than your blindingly obvious crush on him?” Charlotte widened her eyes as she feigned shock. 

With a light, airy, chuckle, Nick moved his arm to gently elbow her arm “More obvious to me, at least. At least this time I’ve known from the start that I’m into her.”

“ _ Her _ ?”

“I’m not playing this game with you tonight, Charlotte.”

“I wasn’t going to ask  _ who _ …” she trailed off as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, picking back up again once she’d finished. “...I was just going to ask a few leading questions…”

With a smirk, Nick pulled into her building’s parking lot. “Oh no what a shame,” he sighed dramatically tossing his head back “I guess you’ll just never get to ask now.”

“You’re not kicking me out of your car, are you?” she teased.

He didn’t respond verbally, opting instead to make a big show of unlocking the passenger door.

As Charlotte sighed and reached to unbuckle herself, she turned to Nick and asked “it’s not actually bothering you that I keep pushing, is it? Because I was fully intending on teasing you some more tomorrow, but if it’s genuinely making you uncomfortable I’ll stop. I’ll get out of the car now and never bring it up again.”

“It’s mildly irritating at best.” he promised. “You’re free to tease me for having a little schoolboy crush all you want.”

“I thought your crush on Jeff was your little school boy crush.” she smirked. 

“GOODNIGHT, CHARLOTTE.”

“Didn’t pay for my food, won’t walk me to the door, some date you turned out to be.” she joked, moving to open the car door. 

“Did…” he was speaking before his brain caught up with his heart. A dangerous move on his part, but he couldn’t help but sheepishly ask “...did you want me to walk you in?”

Cheeks flushing, she stammered “I, uh, was, m-mostly kidding...but, um, that, I mean, I wouldn’t reject the offer…”

He wasn’t about to give her the chance to back out of it. Already unbuckling, he cried “Hold on, I can save this date, let me get the door!”

She was already having trouble holding back her laughter by the time he’d rushed around the car to open her door. “Such a gentleman.” she giggled with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey, I’m trying!” the laughter died down as he let out a much more serious sounding “I really am sorry, you know. For how I treated you tonight.”

“Nick, I’ve already told you, it’s fine-”

“It’s not, though. It was...blindingly obvious within the first five minutes that we all sat down who was supposed to be on a date with who. But I was so confused and jealous and confused by my jealousy that I didn’t-”

“Nick, it’s okay. You were processing a lot-”

“But that’s not your fault. You wasted your evening.”

“It wasn’t an  _ entire  _ waste,” she shrugged, eyes downcast, before looking back up, smiling widely as she reminded “I finally tried BreadStiX. And their pasta’s pretty good.”

Having reached her door, Nick stopped, smiling down at her as he offered “Well how about this - since you actually liked the food, pick a day before the end of the school year and we’ll go back and I’ll actually pay for it this time.”

“Are you sure this new girl you have bigger feelings than Jeff for would like you taking me out on a date?” Charlotte raised an eyebrow tauntingly.

With an awkward laugh, Nick confessed “Well, I, uh, I hope so.”

“Ha ha, what?” Charlotte blinked up at him, confused.

“Nothing.” he quickly dismissed. “It was nothing. Not important. But I’m serious about buying you a make up dinner, okay?”

“Alright,” Charlotte smiled “I’ll get back to you on that.”

“Good.” he paused for a moment, knowing he definitely didn’t deserve a goodnight kiss, but wondering if a kiss on her cheek would be frowned upon. He wanted to. He wanted to kiss more than her cheek, but he refrained. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Of course.” she smiled, fishing her keys out of her purse and putting them into her lock “Same time, same place as always. We share an office.”

And she was right. Same time, same place as always. She was always in the office before he was. Her laptop was already up and running and it looked like she was notating something. “Good morning!” she practically chirped, taking a sip out of her blue ceramic coffee mug, leaving another brown lipstick stain around the top. “How are you doing this morning?”

“Always so chipper.” He mused, smiling. “And I’m alright, you?”

“That’s not what I was asking, Nicholas…” she taunted in a sing-song voice, before setting her mug down and lowering her voice “how are you, you know,  _ doing _ ? How’s the whole Jeff thing?”

“I don’t want to talk about the Jeff thing.” he admitted. “At least not right now.”

“Fair enough.” she nodded, before smirking “So if we’re not talking about Jeff, does this mean I can quiz you about this mystery lady you mentioned last night?”

“Charlotte,” he sighed “I wasn’t talking about some mystery lady. I was talking ab-” he was cut off by his phone buzzing in his pocket. 

“Who’s calling this early?” she asked, taking another sip from her mug.

“It’s...Jeff?”

“Well go on,” Charlotte coaxed, “Answer him.”

Nick nodded slowly, but nonetheless picked up the call. “Hello?”

“Hey! Sorry about last night, super weird vibes man. So anyway we never did go to Lima Bean and since school doesn’t start for like another 45 minutes did you wanna swing by now?” Jeff rambled as though it was all one thought.

“That sounds great, but, like, I’m already at school, man.” Nick scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

“You could totally leave and come back in time!” Jeff’s urging was so upbeat and positive it was hard to say no. “I wanna hang out more before I leave!”

Charlotte, who could hear bits and pieces of Jeff’s side of the conversation through Nick’s phone, glanced up and offered “If you want to go I’ll cover for you if anyone comes looking."

Tilting the phone away from his ear a bit, Nick asked “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ll just tell people you’re in the bathroom or something.” she shrugged.

Returning to his phone conversation, Nick conceded “I can be there in 10.”

And 12 minutes later he was walking into the Lima Bean, the familiar head of floppy bleached blonde hair difficult to miss. “I already ordered for you!” Jeff grinned, sliding the plastic cup over to his friend “Caramel ice coffee! Same thing you used to always get.”

The right side of Nick’s lip twitched up as he replied “Thanks. I, uh, actually switched to vanilla about a year back.”

Jeff seemed...puzzled. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Nick ran a hand through his hair before sitting down, relaying “Sam and I came once last year, he ordered vanilla and I ordered caramel but they put the wrong names on the cups and I was like ‘oh hey this is good actually’ and kinda never went back.”

“Wild.” Jeff stated tamely. 

Nick let out a light chuckle, waving a hand dismissively. “I’ll still drink the caramel though.”

Eyebrows furrowing a bit, Jeff mumbled “I don’t know if you should.”

“It’s a syrup, Jeff.”

“No, it’s a metaphor.”

Raising an eyebrow, Nick admitted “I’m not sure I follow.”

“Nick, buddy, you know I love you,” the L-word, of course, caused Nick to wince, but that wasn’t really Jeff’s fault. “But it seems like all of the other Warblers have moved on, ya know? I’m loving this dance program at UCLA, Blaine’s in New York, Wes has his big lawyer test soon-”

“You mean the bar exam?” Nick questioned.

“Yeah! And David’s almost done his pre-med and he got in to a great med school in Pennsylvania, Thad and his husband just adopted a daughter...and you’re still in Ohio. Still doing show choir.”

“Yeah, but I’m directing it now.”

Jeff sighed “I kinda feel like you’re...stuck in the past, a bit.”

“I can get how it might  _ seem  _ that way,” Nick defended, “but I’m moving on with my life, too. I’m just doing it in the same state as before while teaching something we  _ all  _ used to love.”

“When was the last time you were on a date?” Jeff pushed.

“Last night, you were there.” 

“A  _ real  _ date.”

“Oh god, uh…” he looked to the ceiling, trying to recount “Like, a year and a half ago? The summer right before I started teaching.”

“And how long did that last?”

Nick shrugged “We weren’t like...together. We went on two dates before calling it off.”

“And what about what you told me Sam said the other day?” Jeff tried. “About trying to make Duly Noted too much like The Warblers.”

“That’s because The Warblers had a unique sound!”

“A sound that lost us Regionals every year!” Jeff countered, before sighing. “I didn’t invite you to coffee to attack you. I just...I want what’s best for you, you know? I want you to be happy with your life and it just sort of feels like you’d rather be safe and familiar than happy. I want you to try new things and fall in love with them-”

“Like how you tried Stevie and fell in love with her?”

Jeff’s face fell “It’s not like that.”

“What were you thinking, hooking up with my coworker anyway?!?”

“I didn’t know you were coworkers!” Jeff cried. “We literally met on tinder the night I flew in. And it was just fun for a few nights! I don’t exactly want a ton of ties in Ohio. My life isn’t here anymore.”

“So if you don’t want ties in Ohio, why are you even here?” Nick asked, once again raising an eyebrow. “You obviously didn’t come to hang out with me, since you’ve spent your whole time shacking up with Stevie.”

Jeff paused for a moment, in thought. “You seem jealous…” another pause, the wheels turning, but slowly, before he gasped “...shit, was Stevie the one you had a crush on, and not Charlotte? Did I get them mixed up?”

“No!” Nick cried, before lowering his voice “No, uh, definitely no feelings for Stevie. It’s just…” he drummed his fingers on the table for a minute, before confessing “It’s come to my attention recently,  _ very _ recently, that I had feelings for you, back in the day, and I haven’t exactly resolved them.”

“Oh.” Jeff stated, taking a drink of his coffee before admitting “That’s news to me. That you ever had feelings for me.”

“Yeah, that’s my bad.” Nick smiled, sadly. 

“And you...still?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Nick took a sip of his ice coffee, pooling his thoughts. “What I feel for Charlotte, it’s more...urgent. Burns brighter. With you, now, it’s like...more angry about what might have been. But I was still jealous. I’m not sure it was all romantic. Some of it probably was lingering feelings, but a lot of it was just me being upset because I thought you came up to visit me and then you kinda ignored me all night.”

“That’s fair.” Jeff nodded. “Oh, and, I did come to see you, but also for another reason.”

“To hook up with my coworkers?” Nick joked.

Laughing and shaking his head (and that adorably cute bleach blonde fringe...okay...maybe some of Nick’s feelings  _ were  _ still there…) he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a rectangular piece of thin cardstock. “I got a gig. And I got you a ticket for opening night.”

Reaching across the table to take a look at the ticket, Nick gasped “Congrats, man. I’m really proud of you.”

“I knew you would be.” Jeff smiled sheepishly. “That’s kinda why I pushed so hard on the Ohio thing. What you’re doing here is great, and I’m not saying I’m not proud of your life choices, but like, if you called me to tell me you won regionals, I’d be happy for you, but not...you know…”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “I think...I think I kinda get where you’re coming from. But I like my job. I like my life. And it may not seem that way on the surface, but I am happy.”

Jeff nodded along, and then smiled. “I’ll tell you what - I’ll see you in California in a few weeks, and you can stay with me for a week or so. Get a real taste of what life out there is like. At least then when you come back to Ohio you know what you’re missing, and if you’re still happier here...than you really  _ are _ happier here, you know?"

Reaching across the table to shake his hand, Nick smiled “I’ll take you up on that.”


End file.
